| Anna M | |
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Passage to Carrigaholt
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We left Horta at the civilized hour of 0900 on May 22nd. A front had gone through in the night. We could have used its wind, but I didn't fancy rushing through the islands in the dark and wet. Well, we had to pay for the sleep in and the scenery, with 2 days and a night of light and flukey winds. How we appreciated the SE breeze that sprung up during the second night! The dolphins did too, weaving their bright trails of phosphorescence around us. In the morning a pod of whales, maybe seis, puffed past us heading in the opposite direction. |
The glass fell somewhat, the wind freshened 4/6 and veered nearly SW, it rained; I doubted whether we were in for another dusting.. We were joined for a night by a tired and bedraggled cuckoo. She failed twice to land on the rail, and had to struggle up off the water in our wake; but she made no mistake of getting on the deck the third time, with a very determined crash landing! |
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The glass rose, the sun came out, the wind was now
a balmy southerly. (photo: Fiddler on the Deck) Frederica the cuckoo
saw fit to trust it again and left us. I was able to set the genoa,
flying loose from the fore-stay, wing-and-wing with the boomed-out
yankee, as the Anna M regularly clocked up daily runs of over 150
sea-miles. Gannets started showing up 150 miles from the Blaskets,
and as we crossed the continental shelf, a tight pod of pilot whales
followed us for a while.
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| On the 30th May, we made our land-fall off Old Ireland, and sailed past the Blaskets, magnificent in the evening light. We anchored at Carrigaholt at 0200 on the 31st, delighted that Brother Anthony was after all going to be in time for his niece's wedding! | |
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Revised:13 July 2001Copyright © Joe Aston 2000 - 2006 All rights reserved.
All photographs are © Joe Aston unless otherwise stated, please do not reproduce without permission.